The alpha version of Owlcat Games’ upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, its second CRPG set in the grimdark Warhammer 40k universe, will be available on December 16, the studio has announced. We ask Owlcat’s head of publishing Andrey Tsvetkov what players should expect – and what king of rig you’ll need to get the game to run.
The Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy Alpha is available “by purchasing the Developer’s Digital Pack ($79) or the Collector’s Edition ($289)”. This is one of those cases where the Collector’s Edition only adds physical knicknacks – a statue of a Kroot, a novella, artbook, ‘collector’s box’ for the game, and a solid metal Inquisitorial Insignia. If you’re subscribed to Warhammer+ – Games Workshop’s premium fanclub – at the end of October, you’ll get 25% off the Collector’s Edition.
The Dark Heresy Alpha will cover “Part of Act I, but we won’t spoil what it includes yet”, Tsvetkov says, “We can say there will be plenty of Kroot people, as you saw in the teaser”. “It will include all [the] systems we currently intend to introduce in Dark Heresy”, he says, adding “We’re in active development, so players’ opinions will be important in shaping the final game”.
Dark Heresy builds on the work Owlcat did with Rogue Trader, one of the best Warhammer 40k games ever made and so far the only CRPG set in the universe. I tested the Rogue Trader Alpha and was incredibly impressed by both the quantity and quality of gameplay – and while there were bugs (and random dialogue that hadn’t been translated from Russian), my main problem in the Alpha was how much it left me wanting to play the full game.
The exact minimum and recommended specs for Dark Heresy haven’t been nailed down yet, “as the game will change and be polished during development”. But Tsvetkov makes these provisional recommendations for the Alpha:
GPU: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti / Radeon RX 6700 XT
VRAM: 8 GB+
API: DirectX 12
CPU: Intel Core i5-12600 / AMD Ryzen 5 5600
RAM: 16 GB
I ask Tsvetkov how Dark Heresy compares with its big brother. “While the core gameplay may look similar, the experience is very different”, he says. “In Rogue Trader, you’re a privateer – master of your vessel, wielding wealth and influence across a sector. In Dark Heresy, you’re an acolyte serving an Inquisitor: an operative without grand fleets or vast resources, pursuing goals from the shadows in a secret war against corruption within and without.”
Owlcat loves creating minigames within its CRPGs. In Rogue Trader that was managing your trade empire. In Dark Heresy “we will introduce a dedicated investigation system as a central mechanic, helping you connect the dots across events in the sector”. One thing remains the same: “Your actions, beliefs, and decisions will shape the course of your investigation”. So expect options to become an aquila-waving Puritan or a Chaos-tainted Radical before your mission is complete.
Did you play Rogue Trader to death? Were you an Alpha backer? Or perhaps you played the original pen and paper Dark Heresy Warhammer 40k RPG and have some epic tales of your acolyte’s investigations? We’d love to hear your stories in the Wargamer Discord community.
If you’re a CRPG player who’s not certain about the Warhammer 40k universe, I highly recommend looking at Rogue Trader. I recently wrote an article about how 40k RPGs are the perfect way to introduce newcomers to the setting – you can read it here. I was talking about pen and paper games, but it’s just as true for CRPGs.